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Monday, May 30, 2016

Top Cabin Horrors!

It's summertime and you want to head north the mountains and rent a cabin, perhaps near a stream or on a lake. Maybe you want a more isolated one to really get away from everything. These are worthy desires, but take with you some creepy aspects of cabin rental (for all my readers who love horror themes) -

The Keddie Cabin Murders

In fact, the scary movie, "The Strangers" with Liv Tyler, was inspired by the moviemaker's take on a situation where people were knocking on cabin doors and if no one answered, they broke in and stole things. But, there is a real-life unsolved mystery that is eerily similar.

From Wikipedia, here is the description of this still to this day unsolved murder mystery: In 1981 American quadruple-murder that took place in Keddie, a resort town in Northern California. The victims were Glenna Sharp, known as Sue (age 36), her son John (age 15), and his male friend Dana Wingate (age 17). The final victim, Sue's daughter Tina Sharp (age 12), was missing when the murder was discovered; her remains were found in 1984 in Feather Falls, Butte County. Sue's two youngest sons and their friend were uninjured; found in a room with the door wedged shut by a chair to keep them in. A second daughter, Sheila, had stayed the night with neighbors.

No arrests have been made in connection with the murders. The cabin in which the murders took place was demolished in 2006. The following morning, Glenna's 14-year-old daughter, Sheila, who had spent the night with a friend at a neighboring cabin, found the dead bodies of her mother, brother, and brother's friend lying in the front living room; all had been bound with electrical wire and duct tape, and were beaten and stabbed beyond recognition. Tina Sharp was nowhere to be seen. The savage nature of the crime was undeniable; the walls were covered with knife cuts, and the furniture had been destroyed.

A sheriff patrol commander, Rod DeCrona, who arrived to the scene remarked that "There was blood sprayed absolutely everywhere". Upon examination of the bodies, it was clear that each of the victims had been bludgeoned with a claw hammer and stabbed repeatedly with steak knives. DeCrona also said that one of the knives discovered at the scene had been used so forcefully that the blade had bent entirely in half. The case soon grew cold, and Tina Sharp's bizarre disappearance went unsolved as did the murders.

The town of Keddie began to lose its visitors, and the resort turned into a ghost town. Three years after the crime, in 1984, the dismembered head of Tina Sharp was discovered near Feather Falls, roughly fifty miles downhill from the cabin resort. After this discovery no new information regarding the crime ever surfaced. No arrests have ever been made in regard to the crimes, nor have there been any solid leads as to the motivation of the killer(s). The murders remain unsolved to this day.

Bigfoot Encounters

No matter how much you think you're ready to encounter a Bigfoot, your vulnerable placement in the woods (their stomping grounds) and their massive size, make it a humbling experience.

Straight from the BFRO's massive archives - an encounter at a remote cabin in Shenandoah County, Virginia. Two friends and I were backpacking on great north mountain in the winter of 2002. It was our second night and we reserved a stone cabin from the PATC, named sugar knob cabin, we had not seen anyone all day. There was an ice storm coming and we attributed it to that. We made a fire outside the cabin just before dusk while it was still nice out. We began to hear slow moving, very heavy footsteps walking around the perimeter of the location we were at. We thought it was a bear or a deer but it was clearly on two feet by the sounds it was making. We called out to see if it was a poacher or just someone walking around but no response was given. This is a pretty remote spot and definitely not very visited in the winter months. The walking sounds continued but because the sun was down by now we could not see too far into the woods. We all heard the walking sounds for quite a while and it really freaked us out so much so we abandoned the fire and pretty much locked ourselves into the cabin. All of us had a lot of outdoor experience and had backpacked a lot as well. We had never heard or experienced anything like this before. The sounds got closer once inside the cabin. It is a stone cabin so it is fairly well Insulated from noise. So whatever it was, was large. The footsteps seemed to stop and continue for maybe an hour or so. We made dinner inside and after we ate the footsteps were right next to the cabin, there was a window opposite the door with wood shutters on the blinds that were closed so I opened them expecting to see a person but we all witnessed a dark, very hairy large face looking at us about a foot outside the window. We were terrified, shaking and speechless. The creature took off after a few seconds of seeing us and vise versa. We never heard anymore sounds after that either. We stayed up all night, though just kind of standing guard. The next morning we awoke to ice everywhere and could not find any tracks or evidence of what we saw and heard. We hiked down the stony creek trail to the cars as fast as we could without getting hurt with the ice on the ground. There was a cabin journal at that time and we read it over that night after the incident and read several accounts that were similar to ours. We never stayed there again and this is the first time I have ever told this because I did not want people to think I was nuts or something.

The movies "Misery" or "The Secret Window" might give a sense of what cabin fever is like. Most often it happens during being snowed in for long winters or manning a cabin in a remote area without human contact for long periods of time. Ted Kaczynski might be known as one of the worst cabin fever sufferers. He came to take his own machinations as THE word and his OBSESSIONS as his life purpose.

This syndrome has also been called prairie fever based on settlers in the prairie states who lived in remote areas and became depressed, withdrawn, violent and agoraphobic.

Others who have suffered this are lighthouse keepers. In one particularly chilling incident in the Bahamas at Bird Rock Lighthouse.

Built in 1876, the Bird Rock Lighthouse in the Bahamas was a gorgeous design for its time. In the late 1800s, two lighthouse keepers were assigned and they coincidentally were married to childhood best friends. The two couples embarked from England to the Bahamas to begin their stint. They found out that, because of the rocks around the island and its precarious situation, supplies could only be brought to them twice a year.

The excited couples arrived, finding a woman in a wheelchair, the widow of the lighthouse keeper who was struck by lightning, and a man hobbling about, a lighthousekeeper who had rheumatism. The third person that was there was a woman who was exhausted, having to take care of the other two nonstop for months and months on end.

At first, they lived in contentment, fishing, killing birds for food and the women attempted gardening and fixed up their lighthouse home. Over time, however, it became very monotonous. At one point, on exploring the store rooms, they found a coffin with weights. It had a message that if someone should die while on the island, to put them in the weighted coffin and drop them to sea.

At the six-month point, supplies came with magazines and fresh foods and everyone perked up again.

Then, one wife became sick and, even with medicines and instructions, her husband could not save her. They had to lower her coffin to the sea. The widower became quiet and stoic and, over time, the other couple worried about him.

At one point, the only woman left decided to toss the flowers from the flower box into the sea where her friend had been lowered. The widower went into hysterics because the woman had a premonition dream when they found the coffin that one of the women would be in it. She had caused it - he threatened!

The couple had to hide away the firearms and stay ever vigilant as the widower now had a knife he constantly sharpened.

At night, the widower pounded on the couple's door, ranted and raved. At times, the husband considered shooting the widower just so they could have peace and safety.

One day, after a few days of quiet, the husband saw the widower sitting on a rock out on the island where they had lowered the man's wife to the sea. He decided to take a chance and light the beacon. He had his wife lock the door after he left the room and raced up the tower.

Not too long after the husband left, the wife became anxious. She grabbed up a gun and started up the spiral staircase for her husband.

Unfortunately, as she reached the top, the widower had been lying in wait and had pounced on her husband, a struggle ensuing. Pregnant and awkward, she raced to try and help, pointing the gun, but the men were wrestling and they went over the railing to the dark sea below.

The wife fainted to the floor. When she came-to and realized what had happened, she looked over the railing, considering jumping and joining them, but she could hear her husband's voice in her mind telling her to live for their child.

She spent lonely and depressed days after that, alone on the island.

As the wife went into labor all alone, unable to light the light for the ships, a ship crashed. One man managed to pull himself out to the rocks below.

He scrambled through the lighthouse, thinking he was alone until he found the wife and baby in bed, the wife's face pale, and she was unresponsive. He shook her awake and she said she didn't want to live, but he told her she had a child to live for. The man had lost his wife in childbirth and memories flooded him.

The wife and baby strengthened as the man took care of them and a relief ship came, taking them back to England and the couple married.

Haunted Cabins

Cabins are often haunted locations. Why? Well, most were remote, people died in their own homes, and faced horrible elements in the wintertime. Cabins were often built by trappers and prospectors in the outskirts where they were attacked, killed, and robbed in such remote locales. Here's one such story - LINK.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

A scary and real odorless gas can kill folks in houseboats, cabins, and other small areas without ventilation. In some cases, a family might run a generator inside the building, a charcoal grill indoors, running a car in a closed space, or any cooking and heating devices.

This situation can easily happen to an entire family, as no one can smell the gas and they simply grow tired and fall asleep and then they die.

Be certain that you have good ventilation from outside and be wary around dirty fireplace flues, paint fumes, smoking pipes inside, burning fuel indoors.

I'm going to suggest some good horror movies to get you in the cabin mood - for horror. Please have a safe summer vacay and don't let the horrors scare you. Cabin stays are generally uneventful, except the occasional mosquito bite or burned marshmallow.

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About Me

I am a paranormal investigator who grew up in a Civil War field hospital where many unexplainable occurrences changed the course of my life. The goal of this blog is to open minds and get people excited to seek that which seems unexplainable.

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